Ransomware is the top security threat at higher education institutions, according to a new report from cybersecurity services firm BlueVoyant. The research was based on open-source data, including an automated analysis of threat searches across thousands of colleges worldwide. Ransomware attacks on colleges doubled from 2019 to 2020, costing an institution $447,000 on average. Clop, Ryuk, NetWalker and DoppelPaymer were the primary ransomware families targeting education institutions. Data breaches accounted for half of the security incidents colleges dealt with in 2019, according to the report. Nation-state activity leading to data theft impacted more than 200 institutions over the last two years, it found.
